Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-12-17
PREAMBLE AND PLATFORM.

PREAMBLE AND PLATFORM.
Modern production is based upon the
principle of great production; and while
this system, carrying with it as an uti-
mate consequence the abolition of wage
slavery, has aIread ys"'f.eSalized in the mills,
Factories and workshops, there has been
n complete reaction in the domain Of
household work.
The woman, unequal with man, under
the present system of society, is legally
as well as economically enslaved.
Working in the shops she receives for
equal service wages far lower than the
man. 4
AS the small farmer is enchained to
the clod from which he ekes bare sub
sistence, so is the wife of worker, the
mother of the workers children, en-
| chained to the daily round of domestic
drudgery; subject at all times to the
| caprices of her boss, her husband.
| This continuous and eXacting servitude
of the woman, established and demand
ed under our existing social system, can
| have but one result--the narrowing and
warping of the minds of the mothers of
the country and the consequent degener-
alton Of the American people as a race.
The existence of the present system of
individual housekeeping in direct con-
tradistinction to the principles of mod
ern production, but in accord with the
principles of capitalistic exploitation,
brings forth as Unnatural outgrowth:
l. The packing of Nm many families,
like sardines. in our so-called tenement
houses; necessitated by extortionate
I~rents.
The want of air, light, and sufficient
room, invariably found in these houses,
and due in a great measure to defective
architecture and waste of space
The consequent engendering of disease,
sickness, and vices of all kinds, univer-
sally prevalent in the tenement house
districts
.. The useless waste of labor force,
household materials and articles of food,
and the destruction of household furni-
ture.
g. The impossibility of a rational and
hygenic system of cookery.
4. The neglect of the education of
children and the perversion of the men
| tai faculties Of the woman.
| in order, therefore, to emancipate the
woman from this yoke of modern bond
age, to elevate her social and economic
condition, and to secure for her all Just
and equal rights with man, thus enlarg-
ing and refining the popular conception
of the family in its ethical and moral at
tributes, it is not only necessary that
the system Of wage slavery should be
abolished in factory life, replaced by the
cooperative method of production: but
that the same cooperative system should
be introduced in the family.
To attain this needed reform we aim
to- introduce instead of the present pri-
vate and individual system of housekeep-
ing, the Capitalization of the now scat
tered and isolated families in great build
ing5. Each family to live separate and
apart from other families but all to de-
pend upon central source for light,
beat, cookery, and laundry work; kind
ergarten Schools reading rooms and halls
of entertainment to be also introduced.
The whole to be managed and possessed
by all.
The introduction of such a co-opera-
tive system in the household, will in no
way tend to destroy the family circle,
but will, on the contrary, furnish the
foundaton for family life in its broadest
and Nghtest sense; and twill ultimate
ly realize that individual equality of
sexes, for which reformers have so long
struggled,
And in the furtherance of our desires
and in the interest of the public welfare
we make the following
| RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. That public or private capital be
at once employed in the construction of
one or more buildings on the principle
outlined in this preamble, we the mem
bers of this Society agreeing to furnish
reliable tenants for at least one building
SO constructed as well as the plan of
construction for the said buildings; thus
practically guaranteeing success at the
| outset.
2. That the building trades refuse in
the future TO erect tenement houses the
plans Of which must result in the disease
and deterioration of the tenants.